The Abnormal Life Of Carter Shadrach
by lyoko4ever
Summary: Carter thinks she is a normal girl. But normal girls don't dream about monsters with weird symbols or black smoke that always seems to be followed with disaster. So Carter puts two and two together and makes the discovery of a lifetime. She is NOT normal.
1. Chapter 1: Curiousity Is My Middle Name

_It was like a dark tunnel way. The only visible exit was the light at the end. I began to run towards it but I never seemed to get any closer to freedom. Actually, I seemed to get farther. Then a voice began to echo throughout the tunnel, "You can never escape." It was amused at my failed attempts to run to the light. "You can never escape." It said again. Then I felt a burning pain in my leg. I tripped and fell. I slid against the ground before hitting the side of the tunnel. I looked behind me. There was a red symbol that glowed and stood out from all the black surrounding it. It came closer and closer then..._

"Aaaaah!" I screamed.

"Carter!" My dad came up to my room. He had opened the door and was staring at me, concerned. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," I lied. I could feel sweat dripping off my face and my hands were extremely warm. "I thought I saw a roach but it was nothing."

"Oh...okay." Dad didn't quiet believe me but he decided not to push it. "Well, anyways, it's nearly time for you to get ready for school." I groaned, but so he didn't hear me. It had been barely a week since we moved from the comfort of our old home in Florida to France because of my dad's job transferring here. Ever since we had moved, I had these dreams. They occurred frequently and sometimes I'd have them when I was awake. I pushed myself out of bed and looked in my mirror. I saw a girl with mid-waist length dark brown hair that fell in asymmetrical curls around her heart-shaped face and green eyes. I looked nothing like my father who had pale blond hair and pale blue eyes.

That's because I was adopted when I was barely a one-year-old. My adopted dad's name is Walter Shadrach. I'm Carter Shadrach. Walter and his wife Cecelia adopted me a few months after his wife had been diagnosed with cancer. She had always wanted a daughter but they didn't think she was healthy enough to have one or live long enough to give birth to one so that's when little ol' me came into the picture. Cecilia died about five years ago years after she lost the fight with cancer when I was eight. Now I'm thirteen and Walter and I live in France where his parents were born. I brushed my teeth and washed my face, quickly. Then I wore a black tee shirt that read in white block letters "To write love on her arms" and jeans.

"Bye, Dad." I said as I walked out the door to my new school, Kadic Academy.

"Bye, Carter. Don't get expelled on the first day." Walter joked.

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Kadic Academy looked old-fashioned but welcoming in a grandmotherly kind of way. I had already met with the principal so I just headed to my first class even though classes didn't start yet. Ms. Hertz was already there. "I want nothing but the best from my students and I always have high hopes for each and every one of them. I don't expect any less from you even if you are new." That was the first thing she said to me._ How welcoming._ Finally class started and I got to see what my class would look like for the rest of the school year. There were blondes, brunettes, red-heads, and a pink-haired girl.

"If the population of wolves increased in the forest, what would happen to the population of the rabbits? And what about if it was vise-versa?" Ms. Hertz eyes scanned the room. She settled them on me. "Carter?" Before I could reply, every kid's eyes were on me. "Uhh...if the population of wolves increased then the population of rabbits would decrease and if the population of rabbits increased then the population of wolves would stay the same." Ms. Hertz smiled her approval. "I was sure you would say the wolves' population would decrease. Maybe now I'll learn to stop underestimating my students. Maybe."

It was finally lunch time and I had gotten a warm bagel with lox and some mushy white stuff. I ate the bagel and left the white stuff on my plate. "Are you gonna eat that?" A boy dressed in pink and purple asked me. His hair was gelled up to a point with a purple streak in the middle. I recognized him from Ms. Hertz class. "Uhh...no, you can have it." I pushed my tray over to him and he ate the stuff greedily. "Thanks. I'm Odd." He said. "That's kind of obvious. I mean who would eat that stuff."

"No, that's my name. Odd Della-Robbia," I felt a little embarrassed and I could feel the blood rusing to my face. "Oh." I said. So this is how you make friends. Some random guy just comes up and asks for the throw-up the cafeteria gives you and then you start talking. Odd. "I'm Carter Shadrach." I sounded so formal. Should I sound more laid-back? "You want to sit with me and my friends, Carter?" Odd said. I shrugged. "Sure." Odd had finished eating the mushy vomit and had put my tray away. He actually got in line to get a second helping. Then he took me a table where there were two other boys, a blonde with glasses and a brunette who probably had his own fan club, and two girls, the pink-haired girl from Ms. Hertz class and a Japanese girl who I didn't recognize. They looked at me like I was an alien except for the blonde boy whose eyes were glued to his laptop.

"Uhh...everyone, this is Carter. I invited her to sit with us." They seemed to warm up to me. Odd pointed to them each in turn and introduced them. "This is Jeremie, Ulrich, Aelita, and Yumi." They said either "hi" or "hey" and then went back to eating but I realized that before I came they had been talking but now that I was here they weren't. It must've been something that was secret. Curse my curiosity because I needed to find out what it was. I tried to spark up conversation but failed miserably. The only one who talked was Odd and once he talked, he couldn't stop. I tuned him out until I heard a ringing noise. It was quick then it stopped so I thought I imagined it until I saw the alert looks on the others' faces. They exchanged glances.

"Uhh...Carter, we have to go." Odd said. Where to?" Darn you, curiosity. Somewhere." With that they all ran off. Curiosity killed the cat but I hoped it wouldn't kill me because I followed them. I waited a few seconds so that I kept behind but I didn't lose them. They went through a sewer which I seriously didn't want to do but I did anyway. The sewer smelled of urine so I held my breath until the end where I went through a manhole and found myself on a bridge in front of a factory. I saw them run into it so I did the same. I was lucky that after lunch I had a free period. (Do they say periods in France?) Walter wouldn't be happy if I cut class on the first day. That's when the trail grew cold. There was no way down but the rope and sometimes I get afraid of heights. I closed my eyes and felt the rope slide across my hands. They were bright red. I ignored the searing pain and went into the elevator. I had saw the code Jeremie put in so I pressed it hoping I was right. The elevator door opened and I quickly hid into a dark part of the large room. There was Jeremie sitting in front of a huge computer with a hologram thing and all this other high-tech stuff.

Jeremie had turned around at the sound of the elevator opening but he didn't see me. "Hey, guys could you hurry and deactivate the tower. I have a feeling Xana is coming after me." He said into a headphone thing. What is a Xana? What did he mean by deactivating a tower? He took the headphones off and started looking around. I went deeper into the shadows hoping he didn't find me but I tripped over a cord and landed with an "oomph!" Jeremie saw me and ran over. "What are you doing here?" He said. "What are you doing here?" I countered. "I asked you first." He said. "I asked you second."

"Carter!" Jeremie said, exasperated. I didn't reply because I saw it. It was the black smoke from my dream and it was creeping towards Jeremie. "Jeremie, watch out!" I pushed him out the way and narrowly missed the smoke myself. The elevator door opened again. Yumi and Odd came out. They saw me on top of Jeremie and I'm sure that didn't look like a pretty scene. They instantly came after me. "Hey! What the fudge! Let me go!" I cried. Odd had pinned me on the ground and Yumi had gone over to Jeremie. "What did you do to him?" Odd asked. "I saved his life from that black smoke from my dream and this is how I get repaid." I realized that Jeremie was unconscious. At least the smoke hadn't gotten him. "Black smoke from your dreams?" Odd asked. I was still pinned to the ground. "Yes! Now can you please let me go?" Finally Odd loosened his grip on me. I didn't waste time. Question blasted out of me like crazy.

"What's going on? What was that thing? Why was it trying to hurt Jeremie?" The elevator door opened again and this time Ulrich came out, gasping. "Aelita...Scyphozoa...William." I didn't make much since of what he was saying but apparently the others did. Yumi slapped Jeremie as hard as she could and he finally woke up. "Aelita's on Lyoko by herself with the Scyphozoa and William." Yumi said. Jeremie jumped up. He looked at himself then at me and to the computer. "There are three things to do. Either Jeremie goes on Lyoko or we share out secret with someone else or we let Aelita destroy the ice sector." Odd said. Jeremie looked from me to himself to the supercomputer. Finally he said, "Take Carter to the scanners."

* * *

**Hope you liked this chapter. I'm sorry about my other story but when some people dislike you, they delete your story. If you know how it feels to have to rewrite the first 7 minutes of a show and know you have about 16 minutes left then you know why I don't want to write everything over again so I'm writing a new story which hopefully won't be erased while I go get a zebra cake. **


	2. Chapter 2: First Time On Lyoko

I didn't know what was going on except for the fact that I was going to whatever Lyoko was. Odd pushed me into a cylinder shaped thing but I held on to the outside. "There's no way I'm going in there." I admit it. I'm claustrophobic. Small spaces scare me. "You followed us now you help us." Odd shoved me in and before I could escape, the door closed. "Aaaahhhhh!" I screamed. I banged on the door. "Let me out!" My breathing became short and irregular. I felt air pushing me up so hard that I couldn't keep my eyes open. When I finally could, I wasn't in the scanner. I don't think I was on earth. There was ice everywhere I looked and when I looked at myself some of my hair fell past my face in asymmetrical spirals while the rest was in a braid that was loosely tied with a blue ribbon. My outfit was a sleeveless navy blue tunic that was cut at the bottom unevenly with a long white shirt underneath. I was wearing black capris and black arm warmers. I had a belt that hung loosely around my waist. I saw Aelita running away from a huge jellyfish thing. She threw a ball of pink energy at it but the jellyfish swatted it away. "Why am I here?" I asked no one in particular. "_You're supposed to help Aelita get away from the Scyphozoa." _Jeremie's voice replied. "Where are you Jeremie? Where am I?" I looked around at the icy terrain. "_No time to explain. Just attack the jellyfish." _

"How?" I asked. "_Use your weapon."_ Jeremie said. "What is my weapon?" I questioned. "_How should I know?" _I looked at myself. I didn't see anything that could be helpful. The Scyphozoa was getting closer to Aelita so she threw another orb. I felt for any pockets in my outfit but there were none. "_Carter!" _Jeremie said. _"Your outfit is always based on what you want to be in your subconscious. What would you really want to have as a weapon?" _That was easy. A magical sword, no questions about it. But how did I get it to appear? I had an answer. It was a stupid one but it might work. "Deepercut!" I cried and a sword appeared in my hand. I had spent moments just staring at its beauty. It was Merlin's sword, Deepercut. "_No time for admiration! Attack the Scyphozoa!" _I obeyed. Focusing on my target I threw the sword with precision and accuracy. It severed some of the Scyphozoa's tentacles. The jellyfish retreated and Aelita slumped to the ground. I ran over to her. "Are you okay, Aelita?" I asked. "Please don't be dead. I hardly know you but please don't be dead." Her eyes fluttered open and she got up. "You saved me?" She asked. Was it that hard to believe? I nodded. "Thank you. It's time we get to the tower before—" Aelita was cut off by a zweihander that barely missed her head. I looked to see a boy with shaggy black and blue hair who I could instantly tell was the enemy. His stance of superiority gave off the impression that he was an egotistical, overconfident jerk.

"Who is that?" I asked Aelita. "That is William. He used to be on our side but Xana brainwashed him." She said. "We don't have time to fight him so just—" A large beam of energy flew past us. "RUN!" We both began running but I was pretty much following Aelita since I had no idea what was going on. This was the weirdest thing that ever happened to me on my first day of school. "The tower is over there!" She pointed at a long cylinder that was much bigger than the scanner. It was surrounded by a red aura. Then William had caught up. Aelita had kept on running towards the tower and left me with him. "Deepercut!" I cried. I threw the sword but not as perfectly as I had with the Scyphozoa. William sidstepped it with ease. Deepercut had been lodged into the ice. Just like the sword in the stone, I thought. He charged at me and I barely missed the tip of his zweihander. I ran over to get Deepercut when I felt a foot in my back. I flipped over my two left feet and slid on the slippery ice. "Oww!" I whined. I saw Aelita being stopped by a crab that was bigger than any crab I had ever saw. I knew she had to get to that tower and I wasn't going to willingly let her get hurt. "Crucio!" I cried. I didn't know where it came from but it just came to me. My hand had been outstretched towards the crab and I watched as the crab began to tilt around uneasily before falling over. It twitched before exploding into a million pieces. _Cool. _Now William was after Aelita. _Not cool_.

I pushed myself up and grabbed Deepercut. I felt too weak to do the Crucio spell again. I ran towards William from behind and stabbed him. As quick a roadrunner, he turned around and parried me. The force of his parry pushed me back and it was a swordfight. Sword against sword neither of us had a clear shot until he grabbed my sword. I watched as it turned into a black smoke in his hands. Hurry up and do whatever you have to do, Aelita, I thought. I could see her run into the tower. "Looks like the good people win like always." He growled an inhuman growl and plunged his sword into my stomach. "So this how you say goodbye?" I smirked. "How rude!" I watched as my body turned into little blue blocks until I was nothing but pixels. I fell out of the scanner thing, exhausted. "Are you okay?" Aelita asked. I could see she came out of another scanner. "Great," I said, struggling to my feet. Aelita smiled at me. "Now you know our secret. Could you promise to keep it a secret?" I nodded. "I'll take it to my grave." I said. When I got back into the main room, everything was explained. I think I fainted somewhere between the explanation for this craziness.

I woke in the infirmary. There were six concerned faces staring down at me including the nurse. "Wow, you got a pretty bad hit when you tripped over that branch. I'm surprised you didn't get any bruises. You're very lucky these five found you. They're good friends. They refused to leave until they knew you were okay." They all stared at me smiling. I smiled back, knowing that I had made 5 new friends. And I found out a cool secret along the way.


	3. Chapter 3: Tricked By A Clone

"Seen any roaches lately, Carter?" Dad asked me. I was eating Froot Loops for Sunday breakfast. Well, really, I was just pushing them around in my plate. "No. Guess my screams scared them away." I lied. Truthfully, my "roaches" had become constant visitors. The Lyoko Warriors are perturbed. They are clueless to why I had dreams about Xana before I even knew who he was. For now, we decided to just wait for the answer to show up. "Well, just in case, I got some roach spray. It was a real bargain." Dad pured himself a cup of coffee and picked up the Sunday paper. Finally, I accepted the fact that I wouldn't eat the soggy cereal. I poured it in the trash and washed my bowl out then set it to dry. I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. I took it out to see Jeremie calling from the Supercomputer. I left the kitchen and ran upstairs to my room.

"Hello? Jeremie?" I asked into the phone. "Carter. Come to the factory. I want to scan you on Lyoko to see if you have any connections to Xana or Lyoko." He said. There was something strange about the way he said it but I decided to push my nervous thoughts aside. I didn't want to become paranoid about Xana attacking me since I knew the secret. "'Kay. I'll meet you at the factory in 10 minutes top." Jeremie hung up without a goodbye. I changed out of my deer-covered pajamas into a my favorite off-the-shoulder black tee shirt and black tights. "Dad?" I called downstairs. "I'm going to Yumi's house to copy some notes for math." That was in a way true. Yumi and I had the same math class though we weren't in the same grade. But I always take notes. _Always_. "Sure, sure. Just don't come back late." Walter replied. I quickly ran out the door. It scared me how I was easily lying to him.

Jeremie had been working on freeing William for almost all of the early morning. He refused to sleep until he had a stable idea on what to do. Sometimes he felt himself drifting off so he drank two sodas. The fizz and energy was beginning to wear off. He could feel his eyelids getting heavy but then he noticed that a tower had been activated. The noise woke him up quickly. He called Aelita. "I'm on my way, Jeremie" was her reply. He started to call Ulrich and Odd when he felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder. It shoved him into a wall. "Oww!" He cried, rubbing his head where it had been hit. When he looked up he saw...himself. A clone. He pushed himself out of the way of the fist that flew towards his face. He wasn't ready to block the other fist that immediately came after the first and felt the impact that knocked him out cold. The clone pulled the unconscious Jeremie into a corner where he was invisible from anyone entering the main room. Then he went to the super computer. A cell-phone appeared on his screen with Carter's face inside it. "Hello? Jeremie?" She asked. "Carter. Come to the factory. I want to scan you on Lyoko to see if you have any connections to Xana or Lyoko." The clone said. "'Kay. I'll meet you at the factory in 10 minutes top." The clone hung up, smirking at a job well done.

I quickly arrived at the factory. Jeremie had been impatiently waiting. I could tell from the annoyed look on his face. "What?" I had come as fast as I could which was really fast. "Nothing," He said. "Just get to the scanner." I ignored the coldness in his voice. He was probably having problems. I took the elevator down to the scanners. Each scanner was welcoming. I took a deep breath and went into the center cylinder. I closed my eyes and felt the air that pushed me up. Next thing I knew I landed in the desert sector. So now what do I do, Jeremie?" I asked, looking around. "Enjoy yourself, you're going to be here for a while." I sat down on the desert ground and began to meditate. I found it a simple way to relax. But I couldn't relax with those loud lasers. Wait, lasers? I opened my eyes to find that there was a pair of Tarantulas in front of me. They balancedon their hind legs then began shooting at me. I kart-wheeled out of the way of the attacks and called on my trusty sword. It didn't appear. "Deepercut!" I cried. Nothing. What's going on? I wondered. "Jeremie! My sword isn't appearing. What's wrong?" I asked. "Nothing is wrong. Everything is going according to plan." He said. "Oh, great. Let me guess. You're not Jeremie are you?" The fake Jeremie didn't reply. I was on my own. That so wasn't a good thing.

Aelita had quickly gotten up, ignoring the way her eyes forced themselves shut at the sight of light. She had called Ulrich and Odd and Yumi. They had all agreed to come. She had come through the elevator waiting for the others. Jeremie hadn't yet noticed her but before she even spoke she noticed something strange about him. She could hear Carter's voice over the speaker held to his ear. What is Carter doing on Lyoko alone? She wondered. It hit her like a snake attacking its prey. She quietly went over to a wall where she saw another Jeremie but this one unconscious. That was a clone. Carter hadn't yet learned how to tell clones from the real person. Who knew what the Jeremie clone had planned for her. Now Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd had met up and entered the room together. The clone was confused as to why they were here. The real Jeremie must have called them before he came. He noticed Aelita near the real Jeremie. Oh, well. The damage was already done. It had done its job. Luring the bait to the shark. The clone turned into a bunch of smoke and then slithered away like a snake.

The others had been able to awaken Jeremie who quickly checked on Carter. She had been able to outmaneuver the Tarantulas and send them to their doom in the digital sea but she was now disarmed against the gigantic jellyfish that everyone loves. "Guys, quick! Get to the scanners." He said. He began the virtualization process. "Transfer Yumi. Transfer Odd. Transfer Ulrich. Scanner Ulrich. Scanner Odd. Scanner Yumi. Virtualization." He repeated the process for Aelita and then everyone landed on the desert sector. "Carter is due south of you. She doesn't have much time left. Hurry." Everyone ran off with Yumi in the lead. They were able to get to the Scyphozoa right when it dropped Carter onto the ground and glided away. The brown-haired girl didn't move. The others ran over to her. "Hey. Carter are you alright?" Odd asked. Her green eyes opened wide and looked around before settling on the teenagers around her. "What's going on?" She asked. "You're okay!" Everyone said with relief. "You got caught by the Scyphozoa. We thought you'd become like William. But if you didn't what happened?" Yumi said, quickly. "I really hope its nothing because Xana just deactivated the activated tower. I have a bad feeling. Carter you should start being more careful. Now that you are one of us, Xana will have no qualms about getting rid of you." Jeremie said. He then devirtualized everyone. Carter went home with a headache. If only she had realized that would only be the start of the way her life would begin falling apart.

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**I would really like to have your input on how well I do on writing and keeping your excitement levels over the top. Any constructive critisism is wanted and gladly accepted. Thanks for reading.**


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